Public Employee Press

February is Black History Month
Celebrating King and protecting voting rights

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

The life and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, were honored by DC 37 and 200 members Jan. 12 at the union’s annual commemoration of his birthday.

“We are not just a union, we are the community of New York,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. She recounted the economic progress DC 37 made for members in 2005 by creating its new affordable housing and homeownership program.

Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tenn., where he was supporting striking black sanitation workers in DC 37’s parent union, AFSCME. After years of organizing by his widow, Coretta Scott King, who obtained over 6 million signatures, Dr. King was honored with a national holiday starting in 1986.

The DC 37 Political Action Dept. sponsored the memorial, and Political Action Committee head Lenny Allen chaired. DC 37 Treasurer Maf Misbah Uddin and leaders from many locals participated.

“As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we recall that he fought for political, social and economic equality for blacks and all Americans,” said guest speaker State Sen. Carl Andrews (Dist. 20, Brooklyn.) who plans to run for Congress this fall.

“The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, I like to think of these laws as political reparations for black people. These laws prohibit discrimination and make sure the poor and those who have been shut out can receive their fair share,” Andrews said. Since the laws were enacted in the 1960s, more than 9,000 blacks and Latinos have been elected to state and local government.

In 2007 Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act comes up for renewal, and Andrews stressed its importance. The law requires multi-lingual voting information and calls for redrawing districts every 10 years, to more accurately reflect population shifts.

Andrews recalled his 1981 lawsuit against Mayor Edward Koch, which went to the U.S. Supreme Court and led to expanding the City Council from 35 to 51 members and enlarging the city’s state and federal legislative delegations, opening the seats now filled by Congress members Major Owens, Gregory Meeks and other African American and Latino New Yorkers.

Andrews charged that Bush aide Karl Rove is overseeing the rebuilding and repopulation of communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina to “bring back a population that would make Louisiana a red (Republican) state.”

After Rosa Parks was arrested, the black community’s 381-day bus boycott cost Montgomery, Ala., a lot of money, Andrews said, focusing on the powerful economic component of the civil rights movement. He called for greater access to loans, homeownership and business capital for minorities.

“Last month the TWU inconvenienced us with their strike, but let’s be clear that had they not called a strike in the days leading to Christmas, the MTA would not have returned to the bargaining table so quick,” he said.

“When the governor and the president give tax breaks to the rich, it comes from the same fund as your pensions and health care. New York is becoming a taleof two cities, one for the rich and Wall Street, and then there’s the rest. We need to invest not overseas but in our own communities in America,” Andrews said.

In a candlelit vigil for Dr. King that is a longstanding part of DC 37’s tradition, members sang the civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome,” a song of healing, hope and unity in the civil rights struggle that will continue as long as there is injustice.